Why does my Nikon Z live view get brighter when I turn on a flash?
Asked 3/23/2024
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2 answers
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When I compose on my Nikon Z in live view, the scene looks underexposed and very dark. If I switch on my Godox flash, the live view suddenly becomes much brighter and the histogram shifts right, even though ISO, shutter speed, and aperture stay the same. What is the camera changing when the flash is turned on?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
2y ago
2 Answers
3
TL;DR: The exposure isn't changing; the exposure simulation in liveview is being turned off.
Whenever you take a flash image, you're basically combining two different exposures from two different sources of light: the ambient (all the light in the scene that isn't from the flash) and the flash. And these two exposures can be at different levels, because they rely on different settings. Ambient exposure is determined by iso, aperture, and shutter speed. But flash exposure is determined by iso, aperture, power, and flash-to-subject distance.
On any camera the metering system can only measure the light that's in the scene. A flash burst isn't in the scene yet while you're composing, so the exposure system/simulation can't account for it. It can only show you the ambient portion of the exposure.
If you have your iso, aperture, and shutter speed set to underexpose the ambient (or kill it), then that's what exposure simulation in liveview is going to show you: a very underexposed image.
Your camera has been programmed to understand this is a very common scenario with flash, so as soon as a flash is sensed, exposure simulation is turned off; and the scene in liveview is simply displayed so you can best see what you're doing (i.e., the camera ignores the exposure settings and just treats the image as if the settings let the ambient be well-exposed at "0").
Some cameras do not do this, and you have to manually turn off exposure simulation to see what you're doing in the viewfinder with flash.
Originally by user27440. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user27440
2y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
What changes is usually not the actual exposure settings, but the live-view exposure simulation.
With flash photography, the final image is a combination of:
- ambient light exposure: ISO, aperture, shutter speed
- flash exposure: ISO, aperture, flash power, and flash-to-subject distance
Before the shot, the camera can only measure the ambient light already in the scene. It cannot preview the flash burst itself, because that light has not happened yet. So when a flash is detected, many cameras reduce or disable exposure simulation in live view so the screen stays bright enough for composing and focusing.
That’s why:
- ISO / shutter / aperture appear unchanged
- live view gets brighter
- the histogram preview may shift
It does not mean the ambient light suddenly increased. It means the camera is no longer showing a strict “what ambient-only exposure will look like” preview.
So in short: turning on the flash typically makes the camera stop simulating the dark ambient exposure, because it expects flash to contribute light in the final image.
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